


Mending a Broken Wing

by deadlyplumage



Category: League of Legends
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:34:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23647030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadlyplumage/pseuds/deadlyplumage
Summary: At her lowest and most broken, Xayah finds help and kindness from someone least expected.Planned to be a Riven/Xayah slowburn romance, tags are light for now so as to avoid spoilers of future plot points!
Relationships: Riven/Xayah (League of Legends)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	Mending a Broken Wing

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading my first chapter! I've got a lot planned and I'll try my best to update this as much as I can. Feedback is welcome and appreciated in the comments! <3

In the dead of night, Xayah found herself trudging slowly through muddy farmland on the outskirts of a small Ionian town. Once again, she had come up short of finding any surviving members of her tribe, or her own father. She should have been used to failure by now, but this one broke her. Recently she had felt herself starting to crack, but she was far too stubborn, too proud to let herself be consumed by that particular despair. So to avoid being alone with her thoughts she threw herself fully into her search. She slept little, if at all, and took no breaks. Not to eat, not to drink, not a second’s respite. Xayah put every ounce of her energy into this. Now she found herself exhausted, starving, dehydrated, and worst of all in her mind: a failure. With little left to distract herself from her own thoughts, she was reminded of how broken and cold the world around had felt over the past year. Slowly, the ‘rebellion’ she had built up began to doubt her, and one by one, they abandoned her. They returned home to their families, something which Xayah so desperately wished she could do. Even her beloved, the one who had vowed to spend the rest of his days by her side, even he began to doubt her. Where their travels together were filled with laughter and light conversation, they were instead filled by arguments and harsh, uncomfortable silences. Following an incident that Xayah couldn’t bear to recall, even at her lowest, her once beloved had abandoned her like the rest. She had no one.

The thoughts Xayah tried so hard to escape now crashed into her mind like waves of a flood.  _ 'Why am I even trying, I should give up, I’m clearly just a failure. My father, the rest of my tribe, they’re all probably dead because I was too weak to protect them. It should be me instead, I deserve to die.'  _ As Xayah continued to walk, her body started to feel heavy, and her legs started to give out. She let them, tumbling down into the mud. For a while she just stared up at the stars, they made her feel small under the vastness of the night sky, small and worthless. Her thoughts started to become muddled and incomprehensible, her body numb, and her vision blurry. Soon enough the star's light went out, and the night swallowed her whole.

* * *

For most Ionian farmers, the day started before the sun shone over their fields. For Riven, this was no different. She pulled herself out of bed and started her morning routine. First, she got herself dressed, she wore simple clothes. They were hand-me-downs from the Konte's late sons. When she was first given them, they barely fit her. They were clearly tailored for someone much larger than she was, however, Shava had once hemmed the clothes for Riven to give a more comfortable fit. Shava also re-dyed them, the old earthen-yellow dye was beginning to fade and Riven had made more than one off-hand remark about her distaste of the colour yellow. Instead, they were dyed a sort of deep forest green, her favourite colour. As Riven dressed, she paused for a moment, holding the shirt, now just as tattered as it was before it was re-tailored, in her hands for a moment. The memory of Shava presenting her with the shirt was a pleasant one, if a little bittersweet since the Konte’s passing about a year ago. They were her family, and though she wouldn’t admit it to anyone, not that those in her village particularly cared to know her feelings, she missed them dearly. She shook her head, and pulled the shirt over her head and finished getting dressed. 

Riven wasn't an incredible cook, but having lived on her own for some time now she had learned to be self-sufficient. She could prepare a few simple meals for herself, they were nothing special but they gave her the energy to get through the day. She ate quickly, wanting to be out on the fields before dawn broke. Thanks to the downpour during yesterday’s early evening, the crops likely wouldn't need to be watered this morning. That however only bought her some time to catch up on chores she had fallen behind on, such as cleaning the tool shed and tidying up the barn. Before any of that, the first task was a brief walk through the fields to make sure nothing had ravaged any crops throughout the night. Unfortunately, that was something that occurred more often than she’d like. Though she did occasionally come across some interesting things, nothing could have prepared her for what she would find in the fields today.

* * *

Xayah blinked, her eyes taking a moment to adjust to the sun pouring in through the window of the small room she found herself in. Before she had time to properly take in her surroundings, she was hit by a splitting headache. Not only that, but she noticed how sore and exhausted every muscle in her body felt. She leaned back, cursing under her breath. Memories of last night, as well as her entire week, prior started to come back to her. She was surprised, and a little disappointed that she even woke up, she had fully expected to die lying out in that field. Either due to extreme starvation and dehydration, or by the hands of the Ionian authorities who would surely be looking for her. "Ughhhh I wish I was dead." Xayah groaned. She opened her eyes, finally taking a proper look around the room she apparently spent the night in. It was quaint, with few things besides the large bed she was resting comfortably in. Though one other thing did catch her eye, a painting of an elderly couple standing with two boys, a human couple.  _ 'Great,'  _ she thought,  _ 'captured by a human family who’s likely already sold me out.'  _

Xayah lacked the energy to stand, so she was forced to wait what felt like an agonizingly long time for her assumed captors to check back on her. Of course, her aching body and headache did not make matters any better. When someone did come to check on her, they weren’t at all who Xayah was expecting. A young woman stood in the doorway, much younger than the couple in the painting, quite tall and muscular, and most strikingly was her white hair and strikingly red eyes. She couldn’t be related, Xayah figured. Regardless, the woman came in with a plate of food in one hand and a cup of water in the other. Cautiously, she approached the bed, setting the meal down on the bedside table before taking a step back and speaking.

"Who are you?" The woman asked shortly. It took Xayah a moment to understand what she even was asked. This woman spoke with a strange accent, and her Ionian, to be frank, wasn’t very good. It couldn’t have been her first language. 

"I could ask you the same, who are you? You gonna turn me in?" Xayah snapped back.

"My name is Riven Konte, and no, I'm not going to turn you in." She replied, paying no mind to Xayah's attitude. She relaxed a bit, leaning back against a wall. “You know my name, what is yours?” Riven asked again, this time sterner than the first.

.

"I don't trust you," Xayah said, her words still sharp as if she was in any place to be talking back. Riven, however, was seemingly unphased by Xayah's cutting response. "You don't look like any Ionian I've ever seen, and you aren't in that painting" Xayah continued, gesturing to the family portrait displayed in the room.

"No, I’m Noxian born. Though, those people," Riven paused, glancing at the aforementioned painting, “They took me in when I had nothing, I considered them my family.”

“Noxian.” Xayah spit the word. Admittedly, she knew little of the conflict, but if she despised humans she  _ absolutely hated  _ Noxians. Riven shifted uncomfortably, she didn’t like being reminded of her heritage, of her past.

"...I did terrible things." Riven admitted. “I’ll spare you the details, but I was put on trial by the people of the village, I served my sentence... I care for Ionia and it’s people, I only want to help." Riven sighed, glancing once more at the painting of Shava and Asa. “They forgave me, not that I think I deserved it. After I realized what I had done, what I had been doing for years I hated myself. I starved myself, spent days roaming the outskirts of Ionian villages hoping someone would find me and kill me on sight.” Riven paused again, though she tried her best to hide it, she was visibly uncomfortable discussing this part of her life, with a stranger no less. “They took me in when I had nothing, they gave me food, water, a roof over my head. I did their farm work in exchange, and though they insisted it was enough I never thought it was. It was a kindness I felt like I couldn’t repay.” Riven looked back at the woman lying in her bed. “In a way, you remind me of myself as I was back then… You’re free to stay here, you’ll be fed and sheltered, and you’ll be kept safe.”

Silence hung heavy in the air between them for a few minutes. Riven simply stood awkwardly, anxiously waiting for the woman before her to speak. Riven hadn't expressed her thoughts or feelings that way in a very long time. It made her uncomfortable, to say the least, and the continued silence only confounded that feeling of discomfort. Finally, Xayah huffed, breaking the silence between the two of them.

"Okay, I’ll stay." She replied shortly.

"What's your name?" Riven asked again, she relaxed, breathing a sigh of relief now that the silence was broken.

"It's Xayah."

"Eat your food, Xayah," Riven said, gesturing to the now cold meal left on the bedside table. "I'll be back later this evening."


End file.
